• The Mathematical Education
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.161-185
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• 2019

This study aims to examine pre- and in-service mathematics teachers' reasoning and how they justify their reasoning. For this purpose, we developed a set of mathematical tasks that are based on mathematical contents for middle grade students and conducted the survey to pre- and in-service teachers in Korea. Twenty-five pre-service teachers and 8 in-service teachers participated in the survey. The findings from the data analysis suggested as follows: a) the pre- and in-service mathematics teachers seemed to be very dependent of the manipulation of algebraic expressions so that they attempt to justify only by means of procedures such as known algorithms, rules, facts, etc., rather than trying to find out a mathematical structure in the first instance, b) the proof that teachers produced did not satisfy the generality when they attempted to justify using by other ways than the algebraic manipulation, c) the teachers appeared to rely on using formulas for finding patters and justifying their reasoning, d) a considerable number of the teachers seemed to stay at level 2 in terms of the proof production level, and e) more than 3/4 of the participating teachers appeared to have difficulty in mathematical reasoning and proof production particularly when faced completely new mathematical tasks.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.163-177
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• 2007

Studies on mathematically gifted students have been conducted following Krutetskii. There still exists a necessity for a more detailed research on how these students' mathematical competence is actually displayed during the problem solving process. In this study, it was attempted to analyse the algebraic thinking process in the problem solving a peg puzzle in which 4 mathematically gifted students, who belong to the upper 0.01% group in their grade of elementary school in Korea. They solved and generalized the straight line peg puzzle. Mathematically gifted elementary school students had the tendency to find a general structure using generic examples rather than find inductive rules. They did not have difficulty in expressing their thoughts in letter expressions and in expressing their answers in written language; and though they could estimate general patterns while performing generalization of two factors, it was revealed that not all of them can solve the general formula of two factors. In addition, in the process of discovering a general pattern, it was confirmed that they prefer using diagrams to manipulating concrete objects or using tables. But as to whether or not they verify their generalization results using generalized concrete cases, individual difference was found. From this fact it was confirmed that repeated experiments, on the relationship between a child's generalization ability and his/her behavioral pattern that verifies his/her generalization result through application to a concrete case, are necessary.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2016

Patterns are of great significance to develop algebraic thinking of elementary students. This study analyzed teaching methods of patterns in current elementary mathematics textbook series in terms of three main activities related to pattern generalization (i.e., analyzing the structure of patterns, investigating the relationship between two variables, and reasoning and representing the generalized rules). The results of this study showed that such activities to analyze the structure of patterns are not explicitly considered in the textbooks, whereas those to explore the relationship between two variables in a pattern are emphasized throughout all grade levels using function table. The activities to reason and represent the generalized rules of patterns are dealt in a way both for lower grade students to use informal representations and for upper grade students to employ formal representations with expressions or symbols. The results of this study also illustrated that patterns in the textbooks are treated rather as a separate strand than as something connected to other content strands. This paper closes with several implications to teach patterns in a way to foster early algebraic thinking of elementary school students.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.81-95
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• 2018

Most buildings feature core walls (and shear walls) that are placed eccentrically within the building to fulfil architectural requirements. Contemporary earthquake design standards require three dimensional (3D) dynamic analysis to be undertaken to analyse the imposed seismic actions on this type of buildings. A static method of analysis is always appealing to design practitioners because results from the analysis can always be evaluated independently by manual calculation techniques for quality control purposes. However, the equivalent static analysis method (also known as the lateral load method) which involves application of an equivalent static load at a certain distance from the center of mass of the buildings can generate results that contradict with results from dynamic analysis. In this paper the Generalised Force Method of analysis has been introduced for multi-storey buildings. Algebraic expressions have been derived to provide estimates for the edge displacement ratio taking into account the effects of dynamic torsional actions. The Generalised Force Method which is based on static principles has been shown to be able to make accurate estimates of torsional actions in seismic conditions. The method is illustrated by examples of two multi-storey buildings. Importantly, the black box syndrome of a 3D dynamic analysis of the building can be circumvented.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.172-178
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• 1990

To predict the qualitative performance characteristics of Stirling Engines, an analytical approach to the Ideal Adiabatic Model set up by Urieli et al. has been treated. First, volume variations of both the expansion and the compression cylinders are approximated to piecewise linear function of the crank angle, which make it possible to specify the mass flow direction of each cylinder a priori to solve a set of basic equation. In consequences, an engine cycle can be considered as a combination of 4-type fundamental process. For each process, pressure is obtained as a solution of the algebraic equation. Application of the cyclic steady condition to the whole cycle completes the analysis. Further investigations result in analytical expressions for cyclic heat and work in terms of dependent variables determined from the pressure. The results are expected useful in establishing the preliminary design conditions of Stirling Engines.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.165-182
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• 2014

After algebraic expressions for the roots of 3rd and 4th degree polynomial equations were given in the mid 16th century, seeking such a formula for the 5th and greater degree equations had been one main problem for algebraists for almost 200 years. Lagrange made careful and thorough investigation of various solving methods for equations with the purpose of finding a principle which could be applicable to general equations. In the process of doing this, he found a relation between the roots of the original equation and its auxiliary equation using permutations of the roots. Lagrange's ingenious idea of using permutations of roots of the original equation is regarded as the key factor of the Abel's proof of unsolvability by radicals of general 5th degree equations and of Galois' theory as well. This paper intends to examine Lagrange's contribution in the theory of polynomial equations, providing a detailed analysis of various solving methods of Lagrange and others before him.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.83-99
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• 2012

The conic sections are defined as algebraic expressions using the focus and the directrix in the high school curriculum. However it is difficult that students understand the conic sections without environment which they can manipulate the conic sections. To make up for this weak point, we have found the evidence for generating method of a conic section through a sundial and investigated the history of terms 'focus', 'directrix' and the tool of drawing them continuously.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.135-145
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• 2006

This paper presents the theory, design, fabrication and characterization of the novel low actuation voltage capacitive shunt RF-MEMS switch using a corrugated membrane with HRS MEMS packaging. Analytical analyses and experimental results have been carried out to derive algebraic expressions for the mechanical actuation mechanics of corrugated membrane for a low residual stress. It is shown that the residual stress of both types of corrugated and flat membranes can be modeled with the help of a mechanics theory. The residual stress in corrugated membranes is calculated using a geometrical model and is confirmed by finite element method(FEM) analysis and experimental results. The corrugated electrostatic actuated bridge is suspended over a concave structure of CPW, with sputtered nickel(Ni) as the structural material for the bridge and gold for CPW line, fabricated on high-resistivity silicon(HRS) substrate. The corrugated switch on concave structure requires lower actuation voltage than the flat switch on planar structure in various thickness bridges. The residual stress is very low by corrugating both ends of the bridge on concave structure. The residual stress of the bridge material and structure is critical to lower the actuation voltage. The Self-alignment HRS MEMS package of the RF-MEMS switch with a $15{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ lightly-doped Si chip carrier also shows no parasitic leakage resonances and is verified as an effective packaging solution for the low cost and high performance coplanar MMICs.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.309-331
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• 2016

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority(ACARA) was founded by Australian federal government in 2009. Leading under ACARA, national education curriculum development was propelled. Also from 2014 they gradually extended enforcement of new curriculum by a Reminder about new syllabus implementation (2013.01.29.). The research result of Australia's curriculum, and textbook shows that students repeat, and advance the same contents under spiral curriculum as they move to higher grade. They actively use digital technology, and also puts emphasis on practical context such as Money & financial mathematics. On the level of difficulty, or quantity aspect, Korea handles relatively advanced contents of 'number and operation' or 'Letters and Algebraic Expressions' domain than Australia. However on statistics domain, Australia not only puts more focus on practical stats than Korea, but also concerns as much on both various and qualitative terms Australia doesn't deal with formal concept of 'function'. However, they learn the wide concept of function by handling various graphs. This shows Australia has a point of similarity, and also difference to Korea on various angles.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.127-144
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• 2000

School mathematics are composed of five major units of numbers& algebraic expressions, equations & inequalities, functions, figures, and statistics & probabilities. But if we look into the general activities of mathematics teachers in their class, they rather do not take into account students\` cognitive and affective traits or degree of difficulty which each of the unit has. For successful teaching of mathematics, teachers should take into consideration many affective items which influence the students\` scholastic achievement. Among them student\`s liking for the mathematics is commonly accepted as the most important factor for successful learning. In this study, with the five units of school mathematics, we investigated the students\` degree of likings for each unit. To fined out whether there are any differences in students\` likings for the mathematics, between regions and kind of schools, we classified the population according to the locations and kinds of schools. To do this, we divided the whole region into four parts such as Seoul, large city, medium city and town. Moreover, we partitioned the whole secondary school students into four groups of middle school students, vocational high school students, pro-science students of academic high schools, and pro-liberal arts students of academic high schools. From each partition, we sampled similar size of experimental groups which came up to total 1260 students. Analysing the answer sheets which the students responded about the questionnaire, we investigated the following questions using the ANOVA test. 1. Is there any differences in the trend of likings for each unit between the regional classifications? 2. Is there any differences in the trend of likings for each unit between the classifications of secondary schools? 3. What trends of changes are there in the degree of likings for each unit according to the rising of students\` grade?